A Trophy and a Tassel

You can safely bet that when things are slow on the blog, it means that "real life" has gotten very busy. The past few weeks have been crazy, so I am enjoying a few days of relaxing now and it finally feels like summer vacation has begun.

So where did I leave off?  Oh, yeah--end of the year wrap-ups.  Well, the week after Will's birthday festivities, I accompanied his class to Silver Springs for the end-of-the-year field trip.  This was my first trip to Silver Springs, and it is straight out of 1960:

(That's Will in the blue baseball cap.)

We started with a glass-bottomed boat ride:

Then moved on to animals on dry land:

The kids loved the rides:

(Will trying to act cool.  He spent a good bit of the year with a little crush on the girl next to him!)

Will and one of his buddies with their cobra snake souvenirs--they are doing their best snake faces:

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The following weekend, Will played in his final T-ball game.  He's come a long way since the first game and is hitting really well without the tee--I don't think he used the tee at all for the last 4-5 games. (The kids get 3 tries to hit a pitched ball--if they get 3 strikes, they go back to the tee.)

Warming up:

Eye on the ball:

Rounding third base:

After the game, Will's coach had a surprise for the kids:

Will got his first trophy.  I wasn't sure he would know what a trophy was, but he did, and he was very excited:

After all the morning games were over, the T-ball league hosted an end of the year party with hot dogs, a petting zoo, and bouncy houses.

Despite the expression of terror, Anna loved it and begged to go again and again:

That water was freezing!

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Finally, Will celebrated his first year of school with a kindergarten graduation ceremony.  His teacher did such a good job of preparing the program, in which they showed off all the new things they learned.  They "Rocked Around the Clock" of their typical school day, and demonstrated their reading skills, their math skills, counting money, and telling time.  It was really cute:

The kids worked hard to memorize 26 Bible verses, one for each letter of the alphabet.  They memorized a new one each week, and recited all of them for the graduation ceremony.  Here's a video of some parts of the program, including the verses:

At the end of the program, they changed into caps and gowns for graduation:

Will receiving his diploma and his memorization medal from the school headmaster and his teacher:

One last song...

...and group photo...

(As an aside, Will is a very good student--with the significant exception of some difficulty with listening in class.  Can you tell from this picture that he's prone to daydreaming while instructions are given??)

...then time to celebrate with family.  Nana did the long drive from Blountstown to come to the program, and we were so glad to have her there.  

Anna was pretty proud of her big brother:

Yay, Will!

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Next post:  Summer starts at Mexico Beach :-)